Minor Fictional Characters in Alpha and Omega
This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in Alpha and Omega. Most were simply mentioned or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again. Alexander Desk Clerk When Gabriela Sandoval woke at 4:28 in the morning and found that room service didn't start until 6:30, she showered and dressed and went to the Alexander Hotel front desk clerk to ask her where she could get some breakfast. The clerk thought about it since the clubs were closed and most restaurants didn't open until later. The clerk then suggested the main Tel Aviv bus station which operated around the clock. It was a couple of kilometers so Sandoval could take a taxi or walk which would be less than a half hour. Sandoval asked if would be safe to walk at this time of day to which the clerk replied it was since the thieves would be asleep by now and in any case Tel Aviv was a pretty safe place. Armed with a map and her cellphone, Sandoval decided to walk.Alpha and Omega, pgs. 47-48, hc. Sarah Avigad In the early 2010s, Sarah Avigad was shopping with her girlfriends, and they stopped to eat lunch in a crowded cafe. Moments later, a suicide bomber turned the cafe into a slaughterhouse. Sarah's widower Yitzhak was an ascetic man who kept few luxury possessions. A picture of Sarah was one of the rare bits of sentimentality he allowed himself.Ibid., pgs. 140-141. Paddy Bergeron Paddy Bergeron was a cross-dressing, meth-dealing armed robber out on parole. He and his three girlfriends who hadn't known about each other until the show were guests on the Gabriela and Brandon TV show. Things didn't quite breakdown into a brawl and four burly stagehands helped keep the peace. Bergeron had a good time and made a pass at Gabriela Sandoval when the filming ended which disgusted her. One of his now ex-girlfriends made a come on to Brandon Nesbitt which he declined more gracefully.Ibid., pg. 15. Dov Ben Zakkai Dov Ben Zakkai was a construction equipment dealer whose Ben Zakkai Quarrying manufacture the tools used by the Ark of the Covenant excavators - which was probably very good advertising.Ibid., p. 128. Binyamin Binyamin was the leader of the Likud party. He had spent many of his younger years in the United States, picking up some distinctly American mannerisms. Following the dirty bomb attack on Tel Aviv, Israel's government collapsed. The resulting election gave the Likud a parliamentary landslide, installing Binyamin as Prime Minister. His cabinet included Natan as Minister of Defense and Shlomo Kupferman as Minister of Religious Affairs.Ibid., pgs. 142-143. Following the miraculous failure of a barrage of Iranian missiles to do any damage to Israel, the Iranian government was decapitated by apparently supernatural means. The PM telephoned Minister Kupferman to inform him of this, while Kupferman's guest, Farmer Yitzhak Avigad, listened with awe to Kupferman's side of the conversation.Ibid, p. 222. Some time after this, the PM personally led the diplomatic escort which welcomed Muhammad al-Muntazar, the Islamic Mahdi, to Jerusalem.Ibid., pgs. 407-408. Literary comment Binyamin's biographical thumbnail matches that of Benjamin Binyamin Netanyahu (בִּנְיָמִין נְתַנְיָהוּ), who held the PM office at time of publication. However, the lack of any further description suggests that "Binyamin" is an analog rather than Netanyahu himself. César César was Gabriela Sandoval's ex-husband. He worked at IT for a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey and filed for divorce when Gabriela was on her second reporting stint in Iraq. He may have gotten tired of the long distance relationship or perhaps had already hooked-up with his current girlfriend. (Gabriela's lawyers couldn't prove the latter.) In any case, Gabriela's work out of the country let César gain sole custody of their daughter Heather.Ibid., pg. 17. Forrest Charleston Forrest Charleston was a news commentator for Fox News. After the dirty bomb explosion in Tel Aviv, Charleston flew to Israel to cover the aftermath. He had Gabriela Sandoval, who was an eyewitness to the blast, on his show. She privately thought he was slightly to the right of Attila the Hun but, as a fellow professional, she didn't vehemently disagree with him on his show. Charleston believed ISIS was responsible. Sandoval agreed with the possibility but also suggested al-Qaeda or Hezbollah as possibilities. She did dismiss Hamas and Fatah as not having the expertise to set off a dirty bomb. Charleston demanded to know where the other two would get the radioactive materials but Sandoval countered that ISIS would have the same difficulties. She had four possibilities: renegade Russians, Iran, Pakistan or North Korea. Charleston pushed his bug-a-boo France but Sandoval dismissed them since even with plausible deniability they risked Israeli retaliation. After they went off the air, Charleston expressed satisfaction on how the broadcast had went. He was interrupted by an aide who passed him a note indicating the suicide of the Israeli Minister of Security which he called the first bit of collateral damage.Ibid., pgs. 65-67. Ari Eitan Dr. Ari Eitan headed the decontamination effort of Tel Aviv following the dirty bomb attack. He was interviewed by Gabriela Sandoval, explaining to her how Israel was far better equipped to handle such attacks than the USA was.Ibid., pgs. 83-86. Eitan later informed Yitzhak Avigad that Kibbutz Nair Tamid had been thoroughly inspected and was safe for habitation once again.Ibid., pgs. 197-198. Goldberg Mr. Goldberg was Eric Katz' physics teacher in high school. He maintained that there was no room in the world for miracles, a notion which Eric saw disproved nearly three decades later during the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant.Ibid., p. 132. Bill Henderson Bill Henderson was farmer in Arkansas who raised cattle. Most were Holsteins but one was a brick red heifer. Henderson was a Christian fundamentalist and so recognized it as a possible red heifer denoting the End of Days. The Reconstruction Alliance of Israel was interested and, after an investigation into him and his farm, sent Yitzhak Avigad to examine the cow. Henderson was pleased to meet Yitzhak and his nephew Chaim since he felt they were doing Godly work. After a close examination Yitzhak agreed to buy Rosie at far over market price which also pleased Henderson.Ibid., pgs. 11-15. Iranian Minister of Defense Iran launched three missiles at Israel in retaliation for the removal of the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount, but the missiles simply disappeared. At the same time, the Minister of Defense died in the middle of a telephone call.Ibid., pg. 222. Israeli Defense Forces Captain A Captain with the Israeli Defense Forces was stationed at a Patriot Missile battery when Iran launched three missiles at Israel in retaliation for the removal of the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount. He was in charge of the radar section and reported to the colonel that two missiles were launched from eastern Iran while one from the northwest corner. The colonel ordered the captain to start a verbal countdown when the nearest missile was 30 seconds from the optimum Patriot launch time. Before the captain reached zero, the radar screens flashed causing curses to ring out from his command. He reported that the three missiles were gone from the radar but the Iranians couldn't be jamming it since they were still getting returns from aircraft in the area.Ibid. pgs. 218-220. Israeli First-Aid Volunteer When a van with a dirty bomb exploded outside Tel Aviv's main bus station, an Israeli man applied first-aid. He grabbed Gabriela Sandoval's arm and told her, in Hebrew, that they had to help the injured. She replied in English she didn't understand and he repeated himself in English. The two helped a man thrashing on the ground with a deep wound in his flank and then the Israeli stuffed his wadded handkerchief and an eyeglasses cloth from Sandoval into the wound to slow the bleeding. He stopped an ambulance by standing in front of it yelling until the attendants took the man away. The Israeli then asked for Sandoval's telephone number which she refused to give. The man only shrugged telling her it was her loss and went to help the next closest injured person.Ibid., pgs. 51-53. Israeli Minister of Security The Minister of Security resigned in the immediate aftermath of the dirty bomb explosion in Tel Aviv.Ibid., pg. 59. That night, he killed himself, leaving behind a wife and five children.Ibid., pg. 67. JFK Security Officer Israel took airport and airline security seriously so a Security Officer at JFK grilled the stars and crew of Gabriela and Brandon thoroughly. Gabriela Sandoval became frustrated and tried to pull rank by demanding if he knew who she was. He replied with a cold "No" and continued to question her. With the help of Saul Buchbinder and Brandon Nesbitt they convinced him they had a legitimate reason to travel to Israel and let them board. He did think that their intention to make a documentary on the red heifer was a silly reason and viewers interested in it should find something more important.Ibid., pg. 41. Kittirat Kittirat, who was from the Isaan region of northeast Thailand, was a chef at the Sheraton Hotel in Jerusalem. His noodles were noted for their extreme spiciness. Gabriela Sandoval ordered Kittirat's noodles despite the waiter Pablo's misgivings, figuring that as a daughter of Mexicans she was honor-bound to resist the ill effects of spice. As it turned out, she wasn't, and suffered a bad reaction from Kittirat's cooking - a misfortune which Brandon Nesbitt used to his advantage, as a cover for the illness induced by the Rohypnol which he was about to give her, in order to "scoop" her on the Ark of the Covenant story.Ibid., pgs. 168-175. Labor Party Leader The leader of the Labor Party was visibly distressed after his underdog party pulled even fewer votes than usual in the national election which followed the dirty bomb attack on Tel Aviv. Looking as as if tank had run over his puppy, he promised that the Party would reevaluate its message and be a voice of reason in the Knesset.Ibid., pgs. 143-144. Avraham Moser Avraham Moser was an Israeli graphic designer, and a Levite. Brandon Nesbitt interviewed him and found him to be a terrifying religious fanatic, because of his belief in the power of the Ark of the Covenant.Ibid., pgs. 135-138. Natan Natan was the Israeli Defense Minister in Prime Minister Binyamin's Likud cabinet. Following the miraculous failure of a barrage of Iranian missiles to do any damage to Israel, Natan received a telephone call from Religious Affairs Minister Shlomo Kupferman, desperately asking what had happened. Natan's answer caused Kupferman to spontaneously recite the Sh'mah, sparking the curiosity of his guest Yitzhak Avigad.Ibid., p. 221. Pablo Pablo was a waiter at the Sheraton Hotel in Jerusalem. He appeared to be a Filipino national. Pablo warned Gabriela Sandoval against the extreme spiciness of Chef Kittirat's cooking, a warning which she ignored to her sorrow.Ibid., pgs. 168-175. Reconstruction Alliance Museum Attendant When Eric Katz and Orly Binur visited a museum set up by the Reconstruction Alliance, Katz irritated a museum attendant by mocking a gaudy reconstruction of the Second Temple. She angrily asked why they had come if they made fun of the Alliance, to which Katz replied they were archaeologists. This did soften her attitude a bit and she showed the two the various artifacts the Alliance had reconstructed.Ibid., pgs. 37-40. Keith Rosenthal Keith Rosenthal was a computer technician from Chicago, who had come to Jerusalem to overhaul the university's computer system. While there, he witnessed the odd doings of the newly revealed Jewish Messiah, which he discussed with archaeologists Eric Katz and Yoram Louvish.Ibid., pgs. 313-314. Shaul Shragai Shaul Shragai was a Colonel in Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. He had a body like a wrestler and a face like a bulldog. Shragai met with Haji Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf to tell him that if his people interfered in the excavation of the Temple Mount, they would be dead, not just arrested or wounded, but dead. When Ibrahim told Shagrai that the Arab people's fury was to be feared, Shagrai said that such a threat was meaningless after the dirty bomb attack on Tel Aviv: Israel would always shoot first and never let its enemies get the chance to do so ever again. If the enemies would not play by the rules of civilized warfare, neither would Israel.Ibid., pgs. 79-83. Sophia Sophia was an assistant for the stars of the Gabriela and Brandon television show. She flattered Gabriela Sandoval by calling her a role model and considered sleeping with Brandon Nesbitt if it would advance her career.Ibid., pgs. 18-19. Rhonda Stark Rhonda Stark was the high-school sweetheart of the Reverend Lester Stark. The two had married before Lester started his ministry and remained devoted and faithful to each other ever since. Lester felt she helped keep him grounded and was always honest with what she thought of what he was saying and doing.Ibid., pgs. 30-34. Secretary of Defense The U.S. Secretary of Defense issued a statement following the disappearance of an Iranian missile barrage that had been heading toward Israel: the disappearance was impossible, but had happened anyway. Reverend Lester Stark referenced this point when explaining to his flock the definition of a miracle.Ibid., p. 228. Unnamed Judahite Ghost A man from the Kingdom of Judah, who died sometime between 931 and 722 BC, was revived in ghostly form in the 21st Century CE, when Chaim Avigad, the Jewish Messiah, walked past his resting place. Upon learning that he was in Israel, the Judahite man naturally assumed this to mean that the heretic Northern Israelite Kingdom had conquered the pious Southern Judahite Kingdom. Chaim, who found that the ghost spoke a fairly intelligible form of ancient Hebrew, quickly straightened out the matter, and explained that the Israeli state was not a kingdom at all, nor did most countries in the world have kings either. The Judahite man found this concept of republics and democracies to be utter madness.Ibid., p. 331. Unnamed WWI Ghost A British soldier of the First World War, who spoke with a thick English Cockney accent, caught a Turkish bullet to the head near Jerusalem in 1918. Over 100 years later, he was revived in ghostly form when Chaim Avigad, the Jewish Messiah, walked past his resting place. The British man had expected that if anyone brought him back from death, it would have been Jesus, and certainly not a meek and unassuming young boy.Ibid., pgs. 330-331. Elias Valencia Elias Valencia was a Dungeons & Dragons champion, with a nerdy reputation, whom Gabriela Sandoval knew in her youth. He was two years older than her, and quite a control freak in his role as dungeon-master. Valenica went on to become a Senior VP at Google, giving Sandoval an awed respect for nerds.Ibid., p. 373. Vice President of the United States The American [[Vice President of the United States|'Vice President']] visited the Temple Mount to see the site where the Ark of the Covenant was discovered. The young guards had to refuse him permission to see the Ark itself, due to the circumstances which led to the death of reporter Brandon Nesbitt - one of very few times where the VP could be refused. The VP then made a speech in the outer courtyard of the Third Temple. Yitzhak Avigad, one of the keepers of sacred relics, found that the speech was full of valid points, but it was delivered terribly, causing Avigad's mind to begin dredging up deranged versions of Shakespeare. Had the VP not been such a dull speaker, he might have gotten the top spot in his nation. The VP notably refused to address the question of Arab rights to the Temple Mount.Ibid., pgs. 391-393. Mordechai Yehoshua Captain Mordechai Yehoshua of the Israeli security forces took charge of the operations in Tel Aviv when a dirty bomb was exploded at the main bus station. He told the Gabriela and Brandon show that they had quickly learned it was radioactive because they always carried Geiger counters just in case. They immediately cordoned off the area to limit radioactive poisoning. Fortunately, the winds were light so the fallout didn't spread as far as it might have otherwise. He estimated the death toll from the explosion itself to about a thousand but had no idea what the effects of the radiation might be.Ibid., pgs. 58-59. References * *Alpha